NEWSLETTER - FEBRUARY 2005

 

To: All Members of PPVOA

The board held a meeting on February 4-5, 2005 to conduct the on-going business of our association.  I will be summarizing the results of our meeting, as your board had to face many impending issues and had to make some very difficult decisions.

Finances continue to be the primary issue that keeps the board in the difficult position of meeting all the demands of our property.  First, I would like to thank the 75% of our owners who pay everything on time.  To those 25% who are constantly delinquent or do not pay for long periods, I would like to indicate their unfairness to those owners who do pay in a timely manner.  You will see by the actions we have taken at this board meeting, the board intends to see that all those who are past due will be subject to strict interpretation of the bylaw provisions.

Article VII, Sections 4 & 5 of our bylaws clearly give the board the right to charge interest, place liens, late fees and shut off utilities for any owners who are 30 days past due.  Our attorney has indicated that we can cut off utilities and it is not considered a constructive eviction. We have been doing this since the early eighties and must, reluctantly, start again.  We have been charging late fees and will continue to do so.  We have placed liens in the past and just recently placed liens on A-8, D-18, D-6, and D-2 who each owed approximately $5,000.  A few others are close to being liened in the next few weeks.  The board passed a motion -- if an owner is 60 days or more overdue in payments due, such owner will be subject to utilities being turned off without further notice.  There will be a $50 fee for utility re-connection.  While the board feels it is unfortunate that we are forced to these ends, each owner’s obligations must be met.

As I explain our financial position to you, it will be evident why the board must strictly adhere to our bylaws.  We reviewed the initial 2004 budget through December 31, 2004, and we had a $50,000 deficit in the operating budget.  While there were many reasons for the deficit, electric power was the main contributor.  We budgeted $263,292 for electric in the 2004 budget, but we spent $353,043.31, an approximate $90,000 deficit.  This prevented us from doing some other planned projects.  We were right on target the first seven months, but saw a drastic increase in consumption during the last five months.

 

 WAPA continued to raise its rates and this contributed to the overage also. 

Our cash flow is greatly affected by the large WAPA bills as we must pay up front and then bill individually to the owners and other users on property.  We are going to try to speed up the billing to owners, but we also need those 25% who don’t pay on time to step up to the plate to help our cash flow.   The board and management are going to be working with WAPA to try to get us out of the electric business and ask them to start reading meters and billing owners directly.  If we can accomplish this, it would greatly reduce our budget, help us with our cash flow, and hopefully lead to reduced condo fees.

Most of the special assessment projects have been completed and for those of you who have not been on property lately, the pools have all been completed and look great, the new signs are appearing throughout the property and look great, B-20 repairs are complete, the debt to OPHO has been repaid, repairs to the reverse osmosis and sewage treatment equipment have been done, and many of the other approved expenditures have been completed. The quality and dependability of both the fresh and gray water have improved dramatically under the supervision of our new property manager, Gary Van Oosten. We have not yet put the down payment on the land purchase because we are still owed $30,000 from owners in arrears on their special assessment and we had to spend $37,000 on emergencies that had no funds available in the operating budget; i.e., we had a major electrical burnout in the underground cables that feed the high-rise buildings and those had to be replaced, work on the B-20 and B-21 walkways due to B-20 repairs, some additional work on the upper and lower high-rise building decks, and some other smaller safety projects.  The land purchase agreement is expected to be completed by May, once we have the remaining needed funds.

The 2005 budget was reviewed and it is apparent that we already had shortfalls.  The board revised the 2005 budget increasing utility expense from $298,950 to $400,000, based on the fact that we had spent $353,043 in 2004.  We reduced the grounds keepers’ line item by $38,000 since we have no more grounds keepers and have gone to contract labor to do our grounds, where the improvement is already evident.  We increased the grounds and landscaping line item by $13,400 to cover contract work.  We increased the building and maintenance supplies and electrical and mechanical supplies by $20,400 and made other adjustments deemed necessary to keep our property moving ahead.

I am sorry to announce that Malcolm, who has been our maintenance supervisor for over 20 years, will be retiring on March 3, 2005.  Malcolm has been a tremendous asset to Point Pleasant over the years and we wish him all the best in his retirement.  The board has authorized our property manager to seek a replacement immediately. We have also approved an additional line-level maintenance position which is sorely needed to accomplish all the work on our property.  We need to free Gary VanOosten up from doing routine maintenance so he can learn his other management responsibilities as we phase Bruce Watson out of his consultant role this year. 

We have raised the hourly rate charge for repair work by our staff from $27 to $40 per hour as we were too far below the rate being charged by others.  Our staff will still be able to do repairs etc. for owners, but this is a good time to review what owners are responsible for, especially with so many new owners on board.  Owners are responsible for all repairs inside their units.  Owners are also responsible for limited common areas as stated in our bylaws; e.g., sliding glass doors, screens, railings on decks.  While PPVOA has sometimes made repairs to railings in the past we can no longer do this as we need to follow the by laws. To assist owners, the board will in the near future make a list of estimated costs for frequently requested repairs along with approved product specifications and designs for upgrades. We will also provide a list of approved contractors who are familiar with our resort and specifications. We will provide a detailed list of what PPVOA is responsible for and what owners are responsible for. We are in the process of assembling this information, and will post  it on the web site as soon as it is ready, until that time, please contact the board with any questions you may have.

As a result of the information discussed above, the board has determined there will be a need for another special assessment this year.  The board approved a special assessment of $3000 per studio share payable in two payments on April 1 and July 1, 2005.  While we would have liked to make it later in the year, the 2004 operating budget deficit, the huge increase in utility expense in the last quarter,  the shortfall in the 2004 special assessment, and the need to revise the 2005 operating budget made it necessary to have these funds available earlier than last year. Some of the line items will be to cover the shortfall in the 2005 budget, building repairs to B-29 that affect other units, balance of funds for property sale down payment, underground cable replacement (first of a 3-year program) repairing rails and stairs in common areas, phone line replacement, and building a parts inventory for maintenance and outdoor lighting and fixtures. Please consider this formal notice of the assessment and a request for payment. When final bids are available in a few weeks we will post the detail to the web site.  We ask any owners who can do so to pay your full assessment on April as this would certainly help our cash flow problems.  The board recognizes that asking for special assessments is hard, but hopefully you can see the property improvements from the last special assessment and the need to continue that work as well as get us financially sound and able to meet our financial obligations in a timely manner.

We continue to get complaints from a number of owners about dogs on property and remind you that dogs are prohibited under our rules and regulations.  Thank you to some owners who have corrected that problem.  Management has been instructed to enforce these rules and levy daily fines for non compliance.

Choice Communications has completed cable installation in most of the units and the television programming and picture quality has been greatly improved.

Our annual audit review of the operating budget will be done over the next few months.  We have contracted CPA Larry Kemp to work in supporting the Treasurer and Amelda in the same way that Jeannie Brennan has done in the past.

The new Capital Reserve Account has been established and the January and February payments have been deposited into it.  We will be using our E-Trade account for these funds, and the board officers will be the only signators on this restricted account.

We are currently negotiating our property insurance and there is a good chance we will get a small reduction in our premium as well as some increased coverage.

We will be conducting a lighting test in the “A” building using a florescent bulb that uses only 14 watts instead of a normal 60-watt bulb to try to cut down electrical consumption.  We will also be working on repairing outdoor lighting throughout the property.

Parking issues are few and far between.  Security has been given authority to do what is necessary without warning.

Owners are reminded that you may not make changes to your unit in limited common areas or on the outside of your unit without prior approval from the board of directors.  The board will consider changes that are consistent with specs on our property.  Windows and rails are examples of the type of requests the board would anticipate. As noted above, please contact the Board if you are thinking of replacing windows or rails so that we may work with you to ensure you have the proper specifications.

The board is reviewing the Master Hotel Rental Agreement as we prepare to sign a long-term agreement with Antilles.  Owners in the hotel rental program have been very happy with Antilles management and the return they have been receiving.

Property values continue to be attractive and we must continue to update the property to keep them at that level.  Many owners have commented to me and other board members that as they return to the property they can see the improvements and where their condo fees and special assessment fees are going.  Many of our new owners bought at higher prices and want to see their investment protected.

In closing, I have tried to point out for you the many issues facing all of us as we move into the 2005 budget year.  We have made a lot of great strides since our owners meeting in October, but we need to continue that initiative the rest of this year and into the future.  Point Pleasant is once again taking its place as a premium and beautiful property in St. Thomas.  However, to reach and maintain that goal we need all owners working together and also meeting their individual obligations so we can also be a financially sound association.

Jack Cistriano

President PPVOA

 

Please complete, cut and Return__________________________________

Point Pleasant Owners Association

Credit Card Authorization Form

PP Fax 340 775 4346

1. Unit Number:
2. Owner’s name and mailing address:

3. Credit Card Number and Expiration:

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4. Owner’s email address:
5. Card Holder’s Mailing Address if different than mailing:
6. Authorization to charge credit card for: (please circle)

Monthly Maintenance Fee:             yes      no

Utilities (determined monthly):       yes       no

Assessment                                      yes       no

 

7. I the undersigned do agree to allow Point Pleasant Owners Association to charge my credit card for the fees noted above:

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